The owner of a Harvey printing company faces up to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty Tuesday (Jan. 3) to creating fake transcripts, diplomas and GED certificates and selling them to customers applying for admission to college and financial aid, according to court documents.

Bobby R. Lowe, 66, a Harvey resident and owner of Superior Printing, was charged Nov. 7 with one felony count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in the financial-aid scheme.

According to court records, in early 2013, Lowe printed the fraudulent documents for customers who were applying for admission to Delgado and for federal financial aid without the required high-school diplomas or GED certificates.

In December 2013, Lowe admitted to investigators that he had been printing the false documents, court records show. He also admitted that he knew some of his customers used the fraudulent diplomas, transcripts and GED certificates to apply for jobs or enroll in college.

With each fake GED transcript came an envelope printed with a return address for the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, which oversees Delgado, along with all other public two-year higher-education institutions in the state.

Lowe would advise customers to mail the fake documents to Delgado from Baton Rouge, so the postmark would match the return addresses, making the documents look more legitimate, court records show.

Court documents detailed several examples of the scheme.

One customer, identified in court records as a confidential source, paid $35 for a fake GED diploma and $20 for a fake GED transcript and an envelope bearing a return address for the Louisiana Community and Technical College Systems. Another customer told investigators that she paid $60 to Lowe for a fake high-school diploma, transcript and envelope and then lied about having a diploma when applying to Delgado.

In November 2013, an undercover agent paid $55 to Lowe for the same set of materials, after telling Lowe the fake documents were needed to apply for financial aid through a local college.

U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey set sentencing for April 10.

Along with possible prison time, Lowe also faces a fine of up to $250,000, up to three years of supervised release following any prison term, and a $100 special assessment fee, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite's office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia K. Evans is in charge of the prosecution.